Steven Cassidy

PhD Candidate @UF | Studying social spider behavior and community ecology 🕷️🏳️‍🌈

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

The things I do when I want a spider colony

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

@AndreCuvier They’re the BEST!

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Such a juicy girl 😍

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

And other times I’m just like 🤨

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Sometimes these capture webs are just 🔥

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

@AmphibiArik Well didn't even know it was a skink 😄

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Found some herps in Northern Namibia. @AmphibiArik ID please

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Finding some nice polydomous colonies (colonies with >1 nest connected by a single capture web). It looks so cool when they make big ones with crazy looking capture webs

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Love waking up to these birds. Not sure what they are though, any help birder friends?

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

@Lhesperus I do not. Just looked it up though and it kind of looks like black widow

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Playing with hundreds of spiders just hits different

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

@Lhesperus I got lucky this time that hasn’t happened yet on this thread haha

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Not surpassing that most people have trouble finding S. tentoriicola as their nests are pretty covert and you kind of just have to wonder into them on foot. They also seem to like grass where I’m finding them, which is the same color as their web. Feeling very lucky 😊

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

I’m finding more subsocial pale velvet spiders (Stegodyphus tentoriicola) than I ever thought I would!!! I previously only ever found maybe one or two in a whole field season. This time I’ve found nearly 50 along a 300m transect in a span of a couple hours 😳

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

I’m currently up at 2am because I was so excited to enter my field data and play with it in R. Getting fresh data is such an adrenaline rush that I had forgotten about after the last 3 years

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

These spiders are smaller than a dime but collectively can bring down prey as large as my hand. Amazing

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Found a little baby in the night

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

They’re nests can actually be hotter than the surrounding desert so they hangout just outside their nest

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

Stegodyphus dumicola forms silken nests that they surround with capture web. Sometimes they even make multiple that remain connected. I’m trying to understand what could cause this and the subsequent consequences. I’m finding some pretty cool multi-nest colonies this year!

[Steven Cassidy @StegoSteven]

My favorite part is separating them from their nest until they’re a pile of spiders